


A Terran Tradition

by judelaw



Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Yon-Rogg struggling to understand human things is my favorite trope, Yonvers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 14:14:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21254681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judelaw/pseuds/judelaw
Summary: Yon-Rogg doesn't understand the point of useless disguises but would wear anything for Carol. (Happy Halloween!)





	A Terran Tradition

“What is this?” He asked, carefully touching the material of the see-through ball Carol had just put on her shoulders, only to realize it was made out of what Terrans call plastic.

“It’s my helmet,” Carol replied as if it were the most natural thing she has ever worn.

Yon-Rogg raised an eyebrow, skeptically of the not only the necessity but also the sturdiness of the protective headgear: “I don’t think it will be able to withstand a serious attack, Carol.”

Of course she could easily explain everything to him and put an end to his struggles but seeing how confused he always got by things that were absolutely normal in her eyes never failed to amuse her, so she continued with her vague statements.

“It’s not made for protection; it simply allows the wearer to breathe in space despite the lack of oxygen.”

“You can do that without this preposterous thing.”

“_Yon_,” she finally started, though not fully willing to dissolve the mystery yet, as she watched him scrutinizing her outfit, still leery of its function. “It’s a part of my costume. I’m an astronaut – an incredibly good looking one if I may add.”

Despite their rather unfortunate encounters on C-53 so far, Yon-Rogg had actually been looking forward to their first joint stay on her home planet but Carol’s weird behavior lately had made him wonder if it really had been a good idea to come here.

Yesterday, she had brought home two (what he learnt were called) pumpkins. Both were, to his knowledge, edible, however she seemed to waste a good amount of them by craving a face – or at least what was supposed to resample one – into the pumpkin she was holding, telling him to do the same with the other. He had questioned her decision to throw away perfectly fine food like that but also didn’t want disrespect her culture, just in case it was a Terran, not a Carol thing, so he did as he was told. Her unusual behavior, however, didn’t stop there; it didn’t even stop with the spikes she added to the mouth of her pumpkin that she insisted were teeth. No, _now _she was standing in front of him, wearing a white, seemingly too big overall along with a pseudo-helmet and acted like this was perfectly normal.

“Carol, the entire point of a disguise is that you are unrecognizable when observing the target and, or to blend into the crowd. Judging by what I’ve seen of C-53 so far, I’m sorry,” he held on to remind himself to use the vocabulary she preferred to hear. “Judging by what I’ve seen of _Earth _so far, your outfit is rather salient – and the see-through headgear makes it quite impossible for someone to _not_ recognize you.”

She couldn’t tell if he was lecturing her or if he was earnestly concerned for her sanity but either way she decided to enhance her explanation.

“Again, I’m an astronaut,” Carol insisted like he would know what that is. “And it’s not-”

“No, all you are being is ridiculous if you think this will actually work out in your favor.”

“_Yon-Rogg_,” she elaborated, using his full name to mimic his indoctrinating tone. “It’s Halloween. We are wearing costumes today because it’s fun and not to win a war.”

That didn’t help him in the slightest.

“It’s fun for Te-, _humans_ to wear helmets whose sole purpose is to provide oxygen which enables the wearer to survive in space - despite still standing on the surface their own planet that has a perfectly functioning atmosphere?”

“Not everyone dresses up as an astronaut, Yon.”

“What even is that?”

“It’s,” she thought about a good way to describe that profession. “What we call the people who go to space.”

“Reaching the moon of your own home planet is hardly ‘going to space’.”

“_Anyway_,” she continued, ignoring his demeaning comment of her species’ accomplishments – for now. “On Halloween humans dress up as whatever we want, an astronaut, a cat, a vampire, really anything you can imagine. It’s a tradition, at least in my country. And I want to celebrate it with you this year.”

The last comment melted his incomprehension and skepticism into unconditional support.

“I didn’t understand half the words you just said,” he admitted. “But do I have to wear a disguise as well?”

“I’m _so_ glad you asked!” Carol exclaimed happily as if he had walked straight into her trap. And maybe he had. She walked over to her dresser to pull out his costume, a green suit and mask, and proudly presented it to him. “Here.”

“What is this?” He repeated his earlier question, wondering why Terrans couldn’t just dress up as earthly things he knew already such as trees or these archaic means of transportation they called cars.

“It’s an alien costume,” she grinned, overly satisfied with her own joke.

“I’ve traveled to many planets and galaxies but never have I encountered a species that looked like _this_,” he mumbled as he inspected the huge black eyes and antennas to compare them to the physiognomy of every living being he has ever seen.

“It’s just the stereotypical image of what humans imagine aliens to look like,” Carol noted, paying more attention to her dresser again.

Yon-Rogg laughed: “Exactly like Terrans just with whimsical proportions and in green?”

“Considering you look _exactly_ like one of us, they may not be this far off.”

“If anything Terrans looks like Kree,” he grumbled, partly because he still took too much pride in who he was and partly because it was a scientific fact that human beings haven’t been around for even nearly as long as his people had. “But fair enough.”

Apparently searching for something, Carol pulled everything out of her drawers, creating a mess that made it hard for him to not comment on – especially because he knew she wouldn’t tidy it right away, or at all.

“Now put it on, I don’t want to be late.”

He shortly hesitated as he still didn’t quite understand the utility of the costumes but ended up following her instructions: “Where are we going?”

“Trick-or-treating,” she responded, still focused on finding whatever she was looking for.

“Where is that?”

Carol laughed as she finally discovered the two black bags she needed: “It’s an activity, not a place. We are going from house to house, asking for sweets and if they don’t give us any we’ll play a trick on them - hence trick-or-treating.”

“You beg for superfluous, unhealthy food and punish people who can’t give you any?” He asked, slightly disturbed that Carol was celebrating a tradition that apparently encouraged, and even rewarded, such a behavior.

“Well, if you put it that way…”

She handed him one of the bags and refrained from elucidating Halloween any further as he would be able to experience himself what it was all about quite soon anyway.

Eager to learn everything about the tradition she was sharing with him, he examined every inch of the bag which was decorated with ornaments he only partly recognized. He knew by now what a pumpkin was and he also identified an, anatomically not entirely accurate, human skeleton but he didn’t understand why a Terran was sitting on a broom (had he learnt they have a very different function) or could recall the name of the black, winged animal, let alone their weird white one.

“That’s a ghost,” after she shoved him out of the door, Carol was generous enough to explain every picture on the fabric, however, conveniently forgot to tell him that trick-or-treating was usually something only children did - a fact that he didn’t need long to observe.

“What is a ghost?”

“A dead person that’s still roaming around on Earth and haunting the innocent.”

“Alias you when you pretend you are starving because I won’t make you a pizza.”

Nudging him playfully, she continued expounded the other remaining figures before realizing he didn’t complain about having to walk from house to house and ask for sweets while Carol explained Yon-Rogg was from a different country and she was trying to make up for his lost non-American childhood - which was at least partially the truth. In fact, he even seemed to enjoy himself. The task wasn’t something he found particularly appealing but knowing Carol wanted to share this day with him, filled him with so much joy and pride that the activity itself didn’t even matter to him.

After they had finished their little tour and Yon-Rogg gave his share of the sweets to a group of children (not before asking Carol if he was allowed to do so as he didn’t want to disrespect her culture, of course), they had a small argument about whether it was irresponsible of her to eat this much unhealthy food at once or not. It was an argument she easily ended up winning as he wouldn’t dare to dictate her life but he also had to voice his concerns – something Carol found incredibly endearing, as she knew he only meant well, and annoying at the same time.

“Why would she do that?” Carol commented, reaching for the last bonbon as they both lied on the couch and watched one of the horror films she had rented the day before, basically settling the argument by cuddling. “That’s just stupid.”

“So is eating an entire bag of candy but that doesn’t stop you,” he grinned cheekily when she told him to shut up.

“No, seriously, he had told her not to yet-”

“Imagine having to deal with someone like that for over six years,” he said, barely suppressing his laugh when she hit his shoulder.

“Perhaps your advices were just really shitty.”

“They were _orders_, Carol.”

“Maybe you should have clarified that,” she shrugged when he laughed. “Also since you have mentioned pizza earlier I’m incredibly hungry.”

“You just ate half the inventory of an entire candy store!”

“So? You don’t want me to turn into a ghost, do you?”


End file.
